A conversation with ...

Billy Busch (right), the owner of St. Louis-based William K. Busch Brewing Co., with his chief brewmaster Marc Gottfried.

Billy Busch (right), the owner of St. Louis-based William K. Busch...

In the 1880s, Adolphus Busch co-founder of Anheuser-Busch, brought his thirst for lager beer to San Antonio, and with the help of some local businessmen, he founded Lone Star Brewing Co.

More than 130 years later, the beer baron’s great-grandson Billy Busch continues the family legacy at the St. Louis-based William K. Busch Brewing Co., which was founded in 2011 and is not affiliated with Anheuser-Busch InBev.

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With Marc Gottfried as its head brewer, the company makes two lagers, Kräftig and Kräftig Light, which recently entered the South Texas market, including San Antonio. Currently, the brewery sells its beer in parts of Missouri and Illinois and expects to sell roughly 13,000 barrels this year in its home state, which is about a 20 percent jump from the previous year.

In a recent trip to San Antonio, Busch discussed the company’s position in the market and the beer industry as a whole.

They’re both premium and premium light lagers, mainstream beers. We follow the German purity law (Reinheitsgebot), which dates back 500 years, in brewing our beer. That means we only use four ingredients and that we don’t use cereal adjuncts like rice or corn in our beer. We don’t use preservatives.

It’s an all-natural brewing process. And the result of that process is stronger flavor in our beer. That’s what separates us from other mainstream beers and our competition. So we compete against beers like Bud, Bud Light, Miller and Miller Lite, and Coors and Coors Light. The consumer nowadays is looking for beer with more flavor, and that’s the reason the craft industry has done so well.

With that said, why did you decide to make mainstream lagers rather than craftier options?

A lot of people didn’t believe we could do what we set out to do and be in the premium lager and premium light lager segment. It’s the biggest segment of the industry, and it’s still what consumers in America love to drink.

But that segment continues to shrink, especially as craft beer becomes more mainstream. Why not jump into the craft beer game?

We wanted to get in to where we thought we could do the best. And we thought we could bring stronger flavor to the segment. And what we’re seeing is that the consumer who is disenchanted with the lack of flavor are moving to beers like Kräftig. And we’re seeing the craft drinker looking for something more sessionable (lower alcohol) beer. So we’re kind of hitting a sweet spot in the market.

What are your thoughts on the craft beer explosion?

The craft industry is booming. People are moving to beer with more flavor. The mainstream industry has come down quite a bit in volume. There’s more competition than there’s ever been before with all these craft beers coming into play, more imports coming in, flavored beers, ciders.

It’s becoming more difficult all the time to find shelf space in the marketplace to sell your beer. The climate has increased so much in competition that it’s a very, very difficult business to do well in.

You grew up in the beer industry. What is beer to you?

The beer business is in my blood. I grew up around it.

It’s something that I felt in 2008 was a big loss, a big part of me, a big part of our family. A big part of the industry in America was gone when our company was taken over by InBev. It would have been easy to walk away. But this is my contribution and my family’s contribution to our ancestors, to our heritage, to the beer industry and the beer consumer to keep this going in our family. So we’re basically writing chapter two of the Busch family history in brewing.

Do you remember your first beer?

I don’t remember my first beer. I think I might have had a little drop when I was first born. I don’t think, I know I did. We were all introduced to beer like that when we were first born.

Why did you choose to expand distribution into Texas and San Antonio?

Texas is the second-largest beer consuming state in the country (to Missouri). I have family ties in Texas. I actually used to be in the distribution side of the business in Houston, and I lived in Sugarland back in the early 1990s.

My great-grandfather Adolphus who founded the brewery was affiliated with Lone Star beer in San Antonio. He also built a hotel in Dallas. My father was a good friend of Lyndon Johnson, and he came here and hunted on Lyndon Johnson’s ranch. My great-grandfather saw the wonderful opportunity to have his beer shipped to Texas because it’s such a great state for beer drinking. It was a great opportunity for him, and this is a great opportunity for us to grow our

business and to grow our

volume.

As the company expands distribution are there any plans to add beers to the lineup?

Absolutely. Marc Gottfried has his own pilot brewery in St. Louis, and he’s always testing different styles of beer for us. We’ve got him working on a couple of things that I can’t talk about right now. People will be surprised when they see some of the new styles we’ll eventually come out with.